Microsoft Word comes pretty well configured right out of the box for most users. But there may be some settings you want to change to make your word processing easier on you.
Changing the recently used file list
One option you may want to change is how many documents show up in the recently used list when you click on the file menu. You may want to show more, less or none at all. All you need to do is go to Tools, Options and click the General tab. You will see the Recently used file list where you can change the number of entries from the default 4.
Saving and recovery options
Microsoft Word has a few nice features to help you save your data in case of computer or user error.
The first is the Allow Background Saves option which saves documents in the background while you work.
Next we have Always create backup copy. This option creates a backup copy of a document each time you save the document. Each backup copy replaces the previous backup copy.
Then there is the Save AutoRecover info option. Word will automatically create a document recovery file at the interval you specify in the minutes box. If your computer stops responding or loses power unexpectedly, Word opens the AutoRecover file the next time you start Word.
Spelling and grammar settings
You can set Word to do things such as check your spelling and grammar as you type. When these options are set you will see red squiggly underlines under misspelled words and green squiggly underlines for grammatical errors.
Go to Tools, Options and then the Spelling & Grammar tab. As you can see from the image below there are many other settings you can change to customize your spelling and grammar experience.
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Microsoft Word Save As Options
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